Officially spring

It's here! (Although...was winter actually here? So glad I bought those snow boots and snow pants for the kids.) Things really bloomed during the past week. It started with the daffodils, then we spotted the cherry blossoms. Over the weekend, the pear trees that line our street erupted in white puffs. And the forsythia made its appearance shortly thereafter.



We've been spending as much time as possible outside. Lots of walks up to the lake to feed the ducks (and those pesky geese). The males and females are pairing off, and we can't wait to see ducklings wandering about.



The kids and I set out one night on a long walk, and it has become our new nightly ritual. Sometimes they bring books to read in the jogger. Other times, they will take pictures from their seats...it's really interesting to see what they notice from their perspective. Every dog that crosses our path gets a portrait, that's for sure! One of our walks took us to a nearby park just as the sun set. I love seeing Lauren get braver and braver each year on the playground.



Bubbles are one of Eli's favorite things. He gets so excited about them!



Lauren is spending some quality time on the swing. She's able to start herself from the get-go now. She was so excited that she shared this as her 'joy' at church last week.





While Lauren is swinging, Eli can be found climbing and sliding and pretending to drive a boat on the play set.



In other words...we're having absolutely no fun at all. :)

Their trees

Isaac's parents gave us some trees to plant last year...one for each of the kids. Lauren was so thrilled to see the first blossoms appear on her cherry tree. It has bloomed even more now, and it's really beautiful. The tree is supposed to bloom twice a year, so we'll get to enjoy it again this year.



Of course, Eli wanted to get a picture in front of his Japanese Maple. It is just getting pointy little buds on it. As soon as he over their, he noticed some bees buzzing around, hence his stance. He's still a little traumatized by his wasp bite last summer!

This is the awesomest day in the world

Lauren learned to swing by herself yesterday. She had tried to learn last year, but the pieces just fell into place today. She was so proud of herself and spent a good 30 minutes straight swinging. She declared it 'the awesomest day in the world'.

The elbow

Eli started dancing at a restaurant last night. The video features his signature move, 'the elbow'.

Catching up

These first few months of the year have been full. After the holidays, we had a few weeks of quiet. Then it was back to our old routines and new things started to pop in to the mix.



This has been the mildest winter I can remember ever having. We haven't gotten more than an inch of snow at a time, and it's always gone within a few days. The kids and I are a little bummed, because we really want to go sledding at the big hill. Isaac, however, could not be more pleased!



I took a little business trip to Florida and stayed at a hotel on a body of water called Blue Lagoon. It was also about 2 feet from the airport, but if you ignored the airplane sounds, it was a really pretty place. I soaked up the sunshine at every break. It was a work meeting, so I was scheduled morning, noon, and night with events. But on my breaks, I would go outside and take pictures of lizards to send to the kids.



One weekend, we took the kids down to Oakley for an afternoon. We spent a long time in the amazing Blue Manatee bookstore. The kids had the best time trying out all of the many seats for reading. What a cool place! I especially love that the parking meter out front is yarn-bombed, and they have this huge yarn tree inside. The last time I had been there, Lauren was in a sling. So fun! Afterwards, we went to King Arthur's Court Toys. The kids had to be physically extracted from the store.





We've been pretty lucky as far as illnesses go this year. Last year we had every single virus that has ever existed. This year, we have gotten away with high fevers and general yuckiness that is over in a few days. (Of course, there is also strep throat and a nasty stomach bug going on around so I may eat my words soon.) Poor Eli fell asleep in the grocery cart while we were waiting for a prescription for his ear infection. So pathetic and sweet.



When he finally went back to school, they made these cute sock babies. Complete with felt blankets. He is so smitten with this thing! And of course, Lauren decided that she wanted one, so we ransacked Isaac's sock drawer to make one. She drew on the face and Rapunzel hair.



We've started making plans for birthday parties for the kids, and I can't believe we're only a few months away from having a six and three year old! Lauren just recently started taking piano lessons, and they will be starting up soccer in March. The fun just never ends around here!

Passive aggressive sibling notes

I found this note today that Lauren wrote to Eli. It's a little hard to read in the picture, so here's what she wrote:

"No thank you for being mean to me, and you pinched me two times, Eli. So for being mean, no thank you. And a hundred more times, no thank you, Eli."

And in case he didn't get the point, here's the back:



"No thank you!"

Can you feel the love?

Camingo!

Around the house

Santa brought Lauren a Plasma Car for Christmas, and it's been a total hit with the kids. They play with it every single day, which is great for these cold winter months. I heard them playing together the other day, so I got out to the camera. I had no idea that Eli was wearing Lauren's winter coat, nor do I know why. I'm just thankful that they play together so well.

Sometimes it seems like a good idea to go ice skating

And then it ends up looking like this.

So maybe taking the 2.5 year old ice skating was a bit ambitious! Lauren did pretty well with me holding her hands, but she got really adventurous with a skate trainer. Eli's highlight was watching the Zamboni clean the ice. He was fascinated the whole time. I didn't get any pictures of Lauren on the ice, because she was clinging to me the whole time. But I did manage to get a picture of Eli's super tiny skates. Cute explosion.



The rest of our holiday break was wonderful. I'm still sorting through all the pictures, and getting back to work has been especially painful this year. I hope to share some pictures and some great kid-isms soon. Hope you all had a fantastic holiday season!

Lauren lately

Isaac was away this weekend in Florida, so the kids and I had some quality time together. The kiddos started Sunday morning off with a ukulele jam session while I made pancakes. Eli called it a 'uk-a-lay-la' and sang at the top of his lungs. We've been having fun with music...fiddling with the piano and percussion. Puppet shows are also a big deal right now. This is a good thing, because I have a ton of popsicle sticks from a failed attempt at this cobra popsicle stick awesomeness.

We had our first kindergarten parent/teacher conference today. And I'm going to brag about Lauren a bit. She tested in the 99th percentile. It doesn't get any better than that. She is reading up a storm and might be ready to move to chapter books soon. We'll still keep the standard books in the mix to make sure comprehension is there. She's also doing great at math, and the teacher said this is one of the most creative groups of kids she's ever had. A good fit for Lauren. The teacher said that they're moving into more complex concepts with storytelling and math, so hopefully Lauren will be more challenged. She also commented that when Lauren gets distracted, it's often because she is focused on helping her friends. I'm so proud of our girl!

Lauren has been going into her room to read by herself a lot lately. I commented that it is so funny to experience my childhood from the outside, and my parents agreed. She's got the bug alright. The other night, I asked her if she remembered the rainbow stories I told her when she was younger. She said that she didn't...which surprised me a little, because I told those stories about climbing rainbows every night for what seemed like forever. Then she asked me to tell her one. I started in and immediately realized how much she'd moved beyond such a simple story. She still loved it, but I think it's time for Eli to go on some rainbow adventures of his own now. I think he'll like that.

I taught Lauren's class at church on Sunday, and our theme was generosity. We read this book and made buckets out of paper cups. It was such a great group of kids, and I loved hearing all of their ideas about how to fill up buckets. Generosity is a big word for little kids, but they have no problem understanding the concept.

We've had a few Lauren-isms lately, and I regret not writing them all down. But I do remember one. I was trying to get the kids out the door Sunday afternoon. Eli and I were waiting at the door, and I shouted for Lauren to hurry up. When she appeared, I asked what she was doing. She said, "Oh, I took the longcut."